It is a question that must be in the minds of many coaches and federation leaders around the world. At the French open in 1984 I was approached by the head of the Australian junior development program R.R. at the time and was asked if I would like to join the AIS junior development coach team, the reason being: "we need to develop the "Spanish" clay court game in our juniors". My answer was, "I am honoured with your offer but you must keep in mind that I am a strong believer in the all-round game as well as in the teachings of Mr. Harry Hopman". Needless to say, I never heard from AIS again for years to come.

The Australian Open went on to adopt the slow surfaced rebound Ace tennis courts that totally handicapped their marquee players Patrick Rafter, Mark Phillipoussis and of late a French clay court especially developed for Australia is at Melbourne Park. "Tennis Australia officials like to refer to the particular blends of red dirt as 'Factor X'." (Investment in French clay By Margie McDonald December 16, 2005 "The Australian, Australia's national daily newspaper"). This would be pretty harmless if the likes of Richard Fromberg 6'5'' (195 cm) a baseliner, Lleyton Hewitt 5'11'' (180 cm) defensive baseliner (counter puncher) would not show as by-products of such a grand scheme.

In the USA an identical phenomena happened with the death of Mr. Harry Hopman in 1985, players went looking elsewhere for new training havens. A large sports management group very intelligently bought a tennis academy in 1987, then started and to this day continues to furiously herd present clients and every future tennis star to train there, as well as promoting itself with magazine ads, magazine and TV interviews and various other connections its power within the sport of tennis allows them. With this huge marketing machine and new clients being scouted, signed up and pumped in from around the world, the dawn of baseline robotic tennis and two handed backhands supported by excellent forehands was at hand.

Fortunately, players like John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Pat Rafter, Pete Sampras and now Roger Federer escaped the onslaught and were privileged to have Coaches/Teachers that offered them the option to fully develop their games with one handed backhands, the serve and volley and the all-round game.

Australia and the USA, as dominant tennis nations for many years, were the standard that others followed to develop their players. Now let us make a small tally of the damage poor development principals can do world wide; false "gurus", teachers conferences, tennis clinics, papers and books, DVD